AT&T Offers Me $300 To Host An Open House To Demo U-verse

All this time I've been having my own TupperWare - like parties bringing friends over to the house to do my own demos of the AT&T u-Verse service.  I've had friends, employess, and clients from Israel to come see this thing. 

Now I get this offer in the mail from AT&T offering me up to $300 to host my own U-verse party.  They tell me they will take care of everything....invites, doing the demo, door prizes, snacks, and even the clean up.

Well, I am way ahead (but financially in the hole) of you guys at AT&T because I've been doing this anyway.

I spent $30 on fancy take out at Central Market to feed the folks from Armida Technologies when they came over to see it, and who knows how many bottles of wine I've drank with Sheridan, Dan, and John as we stare at my big screen wondering where this industry is going.

So, to the guy in Austin who thought this idea up, and helped get George W. elected, here are some suggestions:

1.  The best way to demonstrate u-Verse is NOT to demonstrate u-Verse.  Hand your guest the remote and let them figure it out themselves.  The interface is so intuitive you shouldn't "demo" it.   If there is something they missed, then by all means show them some of the features they may have missed. 

Everyone that has come to my house to see u-Verse has an "ah-ha" moment when they do this.  So don't spoil the moment.

And when you do the demo, don't forget to be open about all of the programming, including the "adult content" you can order for $10 a pop.

2.  If you are going to give away "door prizes," give them something from AT&T, Yahoo, and Microsoft.  Don't forget- this is AT&T's plumbing and Microsoft's front end that makes viewing experience happen.  Give the guys at Microsoft's IPTV group some credit  (FYI...I am visiting them at the end of July....)

3. Invest in a partnership with the Apple store at La Cantera and extend the traffic from the house to their store.  (email me at: alan at weinkrantz dot com and I will tell you why this makes sense.)

4.  Don't offer to clean up.  Have the participants clean up after themselves.

I mean this.  Part of what IPTV is going to provide is an enabling of community building.  Just wait until uploading user-generated content starts to happen where you can develop your videos and create a family channel for your own broadcasting around the country.  That's the start of real community building.

5. If you are going to be paid $300 to do this, give the money to charity.  (or to the Republican party ;)

Chances are that if you are an early trial user of the u-Verse service, you are not worried about your next enchilada dinner at LaFonda on North Main. 

Take the money, but do something good with it.  Or perhaps AT&T could develop a program where they administer this on your behalf. Then you guys both win.

Next on my invite list... the people at Time Warner / San Antonio who have been kind enough to lower my cable bill by 30%!